


Brighter Days

by ItalianSushi



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst, Drug Use, I don't know what else to tag, Illegal happenings, Implied Child Abuse, Implied Kidnapping, possible homophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:01:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4539018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItalianSushi/pseuds/ItalianSushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred Jones only had one thing he wanted out of his shitty life, to find the brother he had been snatched from in his early years of life. After a German man named Ludwig adopted him, things begin to take a violent turn, and he can't decide if it's for the better or worse.<br/>[ Currently being rewritten ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

_“Oi! What’s wrong, Artie? Can you not even catch a simple tennis ball anymore?” Came a cocky, clearly French accented male’s voice. It seemed so far away, like it always was. The voices were always far away._

_“Shut up, you bloody frog! You just suck at throwing! Instead of mocking me why don’t you help us find the bloody thing?!” The second one was a pissed off Brit, as far as he could tell. Everything surrounding him seemed warped, not real, yet as if it had really happened. Was it simply just a past memory?_

_“Papa! Look, Alfred has it!” A little Canadian boy, no doubt. The boy had a mix of British and French in his accent._

_Though barely visible, he could see a young man with thick eyebrows quickly approaching him, the British one, “Oh! Alfred, you managed to catch that thing? I do say, I’m impressed! Well, you’ve always been good at sports, it shouldn’t be a surprise really!”_

_A light smile made it’s way onto the Brit’s face as he reached out to him. When he tried reaching back, when he managed to just barely graze the man’s fingertips, it fades away. Without warning, it all vanishes into darkness. Pitch black, just like the basement._

 

The first thing Alfred saw as he woke up in a daze on his too small bed was that his clock read four in the afternoon, right around the time he would get up everyday. It was pretty late to be getting up, but considering his extreme lifestyle of going to parties until five in the morning or playing video games all night, he found that it made enough sense.

“Shit.. That dream again..? It’s like a cliche start to a movie, it just never ends..” Alfred forced himself to stumble out of bed, gently running his fingers through his hair to comb it as he made his way out of his ‘room’ and down the hall into the showers. There were only a handful of children living in the orphanage, with Alfred being the oldest out of all of them. Just last week, he had turned sixteen, which meant nothing to him. Just two more years and he’d be kicked out into the streets, homeless and jobless. With his horrible grades and lack of attendance at school, college was looking to be impossible for him. Not to mention his underage consumption of alcohol and illegal use of drugs at all those parties he goes to. He may just end up in jail after he turns eighteen.

He only spent ten minutes in the shower and hurried to change, refusing to look in the mirror, leaving his hair the normal mess it was and heading downstairs to grab some food. Unless there wasn’t any left in which case he’d just steal some money and head up to the store. Nobody ever stopped him. The first thing he noticed was off was how eerily quiet it was, except for the front desk, but he just ignored that and tried to figure out where everyone could of gone. They always left him behind, but he didn’t care much. Making a swift move into the kitchen, Alfred just grabbed an opened package of crackers and started eating them. Of course there wouldn’t be any actual food leftover. The conversation between the lady at the desk and whoever had decided to come here had suddenly got loud enough for him eavesdrop on, and that he did.

“I really don’t recommend you adopting him, Mister Beilschmidt, he really is a troubled young man.”

_‘Well they must be talking about me, huh?’_

Alfred rolled his eyes and sighed gently, knowing how this would all go down.

“I know that, you’ve told me dozens of times, but I would still like to at least see him first.”

The man, ‘Mister Beilschmidt’ as the lady had said, sounded German to the ear. At least to Alfred, especially when he’d hear quiet little German swears under the man’s breath.

“Well, if you insist, then I suppose you can see him. But just think really carefully about what you decide Mister Beilschmidt.”

_‘And then he’ll come to see me and will get depressed or pissed off at me and leave. Nothing really new here.’_

In an instant, the man found Alfred, considering the kitchen was so close to the front desk. An interesting design on the building planners part. The German was at least twice Alfred’s height, with piercing blue eyes much like Alfred’s own and blonde hair that was much lighter in color then Alfred’s almost orange blonde hair. The man’s hair was slicked back and he had a stern look on his face, a very serious one.

“. . What’s new, old man?” The American finally said after a few akward minutes of silence between them. There was no clear reaction from the male.

“I assume that you’re Alfred? You live up to what people say about you.” He replied shortly after, “My name is Ludwig Beilschmidt, as maybe you’ve heard? I was just up front talking to the manager after all.”

“Yeah, what are you here for though?” Alfred said, chomping down on a cracker.

“I was here to see about adopting you-”

“Save it, bub. I don’t need your pity. If you’re gonna adopt me, do it. If not, don’t. It’s really simple, so just decide because you aren’t getting brownie points for helping me out.”

Once again, there was barely a reaction. No surprised gasp, no harsh glare, just the same look on his face as he spoke, “Then I’ll do it.” He paused, “I’ll take you in, I like challenges, and you seem to be a big one.”

“Hmmpt. We’ll see about that, German dude.” Alfred said, “Because unlike your other ‘challenges’, you can’t back away from me.”

The memories of when Ludwig adopted him were so fuzy at that point, he couldn’t remember much. Looking back at it, he thought he may of been too harsh on the German, but hey, it got him out of that hellhole. The next years would be the best and worst of his life, though they also ended his years of ‘normal’, with him moving and nobody knowing anything about him.

** Alfred does know though, that he accepted the challenge. **


	2. Chapter 1

Curses strung out of young Alfred’s mouth as he pulled his hoodie closer to himself, trying to will the strength to go on. He must have been running from his attackers for ten minutes when it began to downpour. Every step was a struggle not to slip and fall in a muddy puddle, then getting caught. No, getting caught wasn’t an option. Though, he did kind of deserve it, for cheating them everytime he promised to pay them back. He never planned on paying them for the pills anyways, it was just a matter of how long until they’d stop caring.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted dark, dense woods that he easily recognized as the divider between two sides of town. It was only really a coincidence that two parts of their town were divided, there wasn’t some big feud between two sides or anything of the sort. Maybe he could lose them in there? It seemed like a good idea, and even if he didn’t lose them, he knew exactly where to go after getting out of the woods. Alfred nearly fell as he spun around and cut into the woods, leaving his dumbfounded ‘trade partners’ in the dust. He didn’t dare stop until he was at least half way through the forest. Even then, he stayed alert and moved quickly. It was well after midnight, and it looked like it was going to rain soon. His plan had been to run to Kiku’s house and spend the night, but Kiku wasn’t always awake this late at night.  
Kiku was a Japanese transfer student and Alfred’s best friend, as far as he was concerned. He was almost the opposite of The American, being more reserved and quiet. With being so close to Alfred, he never turned Alfred away when he’d come over to spend the night and never asked questions unlike some other people he knew. The only real obstacle was Kiku’s older brother, Yao. Yao and Kiku weren’t related by blood, in fact, Yao was Chinese, so they were already pretty different. The story had been that Yao had taken pity over Kiku’s parents dying and took him in, along with a Korean boy named Im Yong. How Yao and Kiku even knew each other in the first place was beyond Alfred’s understanding, but Yao had made it very clear that he didn’t like the danger Alfred brought with him and didn’t like him being over. Of course, Yao never said anything when Kiku let him in, but if Kiku was asleep or not at home, there was no doubt that Yao would kick him back out.   
There was no way in hell that Alfred was going back to Ludwig’s house, he would hear Alfred sneak back in and yell at him about what he was doing out. He’d rather take the chance of going to Kiku’s house. Besides, he already lost the guys chasing him, so there wasn’t anything to worry about. He jogged the rest of the way out of the woods, and found Kiku’s house easily on the street filled with more Asian styled houses. He let out a breath he had no idea he was holding in when he saw that there was only one light on in the house, and it was the light in Kiku’s room. To avoid waking Im Yong or Yao up, Alfred sneaked around to the back of the house and leaned next to the framed door, shooting Kiku a quick text that he was waiting outside in the back.  
It took a few minutes, but the backdoor did gently slide open, with Kiku standing wrapped up in a kimono on the otherside. He gestured for Alfred to hurry inside, and then closed the door behind Alfred.  
“Thanks a million, dude. I couldn’t sneak back into Luddy’s place for the life of me.” Alfred whispered to his friend as they made their way upstairs, making as little noise as possible.  
“It’s alright, Alfred-san, this wouldn’t be the first time after all.” Kiku replied, “Though I’m confused, Ludwig-san is your adoptive father, why do you call him by his first name?”  
“Easy, Kiku. I don’t respect him, nor am I required to. I won’t call him Dad or anything like that.”  
“If you say so.. I’d think you’d at least care about him a little bit though. Oh! Where would you like to sleep tonight?”  
“Anywhere, really.” He flashed a toothy grin at Kiku, “I’ll take the floor if you’d like.”  
“N-no! I wouldn’t dream of it..!” Kiku replied hastily and pointed at his bed, “You can take the bed.. or we could.. share it.”  
“Why do you sound so embarrassed, dude? It’s just two guys in the same bed, nothing special. C’mon, man.”  
Kiku watched Alfred crawl into his bed before hesitantly joining him, his mind set on what Alfred had just said, unable to see this as just two guys laying in the same bed. That’s what it was, but he couldn’t see it like that.


	3. Chapter 2

There was a lot of yelling coming from a very angry Yao when Alfred woke up the next morning. Kiku was already up, sitting almost right up against Alfred with his headphones plugged into his laptop, unaware of the Chinese swears floating in the air. He carefully pulled his phone out of his pocket, forgetting to take it out before he’d gone to bed. Not to mention his limbs were sore. It was as if somebody were holding onto him all night. The time on his phone’s digital clock read eleven thirty in the morning. Way earlier than he would of gotten up on any other day, but he supposed the fact that he shouldn’t of even been there to be keeping him on edge.

“Ohayō gozaimasu, Alfred-san.” Kiku seemed to take notice of his friend waking up and pulled off his headsets, “Did you sleep well?”

“Wish Yao wouldn’t of woken me up with his yelling, but I slept fine.” Alfred replied, crawling around Kiku to get off of the mattress and stretch.

“Ah.. I’m sorry about that, Alfred-san. He’s been on the phone for the past hour with Ludwig, I can’t understand what he’s even saying half the time..” He confessed, bowing his head slightly.

“Listen, it’s perfectly fine. I’m just glad you let me spend the night in the first place!”

“Well.. What are friends for..?”

Alfred smiled down at Kiku, who turned his head away to hide the flustered look on his face. He always knew the ways into Kiku’s heart, without even knowing it. The Japanese male was well aware that Alfred didn’t stay in committed relationships for more than a week, and has never gone out with a guy. If he kept these feelings locked away, they could at least stay good friends. Kiku couldn’t bare to think of what he would do without Alfred to pester him about the latest video games or just the two of them resting in bed watching a horror movie when he stayed over. Last night had been bland in comparison to what they usually did together.

“I’ve told you time and time again, Alfred is not here! I would think I would know who comes and goes into my house, thank you very much!”

‘Yao’s really pissed off today.’ Alfred internally groaned at hearing that God-awful voice from downstairs.

“Well, I think I better ditch before Yao finds out I’m here. I’d much rather he yell at Ludwig than me.” The American said, looking down at Kiku for an answer. He simply nodded in response and told him to be careful and he’d see Alfred at school on Monday. Oh yeah, today was Sunday. There wouldn’t be any delay of the thrashing he was gonna get when he got home.

“See ya, Kiku!” Alfred then glided out of the room, fixing his hair as he made his way downstairs, already knowing that Yao was on the phone in the living room, leaving his back turned away from the backdoor.

“Maybe if you had raised your son correctly, he wouldn’t of turned out to be such a Tian Po.” Yao nearly hissed into the phone, pretty much done with having to deal with the angry German on the other end. As if it was bad enough being forced to let Alfred into his home when Kiku wanted him to stay over, dealing with his father was about ten times worse. He’d rather Alfred annoy him here over having Ludwig yelling at him. At this rate he would need a hearing aid.

The volume of Ludwig’s words on the other end blocked out the sound of Alfred leaving through the backdoor, leaving no evidence of his presence there. In order to to get back to his house, Alfred had to go through the same forest where he had lost those thugs last night. He doubted they would be out during the day, in broad daylight, so he just kept walking through the forest. Of course he’d take his time, anything to avoid Ludwig, really. What was he going to say? Yao already told him that he ‘wasn’t in his house’. His best bet was to just sass him and say he was just out all night. At least that was half true.

Ludwig had a nice, European styled house. It was all in all just a nice house, yet surprisingly simple. In the front there was a small staircase leading up to the white painted wooden door, with what looked like replicas of pillars on each side of the stairs. To go with the theme of two things on each side, there was one window on each side of the door, with the curtains also being white. Probably because white was a clean color. One thing about Ludwig is that he loved to keep his house clean.  
At that point he had decided to just tell him that he’d been out all night, and made his way anxiously up the stairs. He’d dealt with this dozens of times. It was no big deal. As soon as he walked into the door, he was greeted by the two dogs that Ludwig owned, a German Shepherd named Berlitz and a Golden Retriever named Aster. Berlitz and Aster were trained to be friendly pets and fierce guard dogs, each being between three and four years old. Ludwig had them before he’d adopted Alfred, but he loved the dogs as much as they loved him, seeing as they were always there when he came home.

“Ah-” He heard Ludwig suddenly stop mid sentence, assumingly hearing Alfred come in, “He’s home, Yao. Sorry to bother you.”

Before Ludwig hung up, Alfred could hear Yao screaming that sorry wouldn’t cut it, but he didn’t listen, more focused on Alfred. Like so many times before, he’d always start off in a concerned tone, checking Alfred over for injuries or clear signs of distress. Then he’d turn serious after seeing nothing wrong.

“Alfred, where the hell were you-!?” Ludwig kept his voice as calm and even as he could, probably from taking out most of his anger out on poor Yao.

Alfred shrugged casually and looked back up at him, “I was just out. I didn’t really go anywhere.”

“.. So you were just out?” 

Alfred nodded and added, “A couple of friends wanted to stay out all night, so I just went with them.”

There was an obvious tension between the two as they stayed silent, before Ludwig replied simply, “Alfred, this isn’t over. You need to tell me where you’re going, especially when you drag others into things like this. I’m taking Aster to the vet today, so I guess you’re off the hook for now.”

.. No way.

It was never this simple, where was the screaming? Where were the foreign curses? Just like that? Alfred knew he should be ecstatic that he wouldn’t have to waste valuable time with an angry German, but it just seemed too easy.

“Well, I’ll start now then.” Alfred said, passing Ludwig by, “I think I’ll go over Kiku’s house or something.”

He had just been there an hour ago, but they could actually do something. At least he hoped. Leaving only to return an hour later seemed odd, but at least he’d be able to pack stuff to bring with him.

“...” He heard Ludwig sigh, “Alright, but I want you to text or call me when you get there so I know that you arrived safely.

“Yeah, whatever. Make sure Aster’s alright, m’kay?”

Alfred heard Ludwig leave after shouting a goodbye ten minutes later, then he proceeded to dial Kiku’s number. It was strange to see that Kiku hadn’t picked up and waited for him to call back. Well, he never called back. He wasn’t sure if he should worry, after all it was a Sunday afternoon and he might be busy. That didn’t make it hurt any less to know that he couldn’t go back to Kiku’s.

“Tch. If he’s busy, he’s busy. I think I’ll just go up to Ivan’s instead.”


	4. Chapter 3

Ivan wasn’t really a bad guy or anything, he just came off as intimidating. He apparently came straight from Russia and opened a neat little bar. Some people were scared off by his incredible height and muscular build, and he reminded Alfred of Ludwig, except that Ludwig could be overpowered by Ivan if Ivan tried hard enough. Actually, when Ivan and Alfred first saw each other, they’d had a rough start and got into fights often, but after months of needless arguing, they warmed up to each other. Alfred went over to Ivan’s bar when he needed advice, also because he wasn’t home very often. This time though, it would be just casual.

After shooting a text to Ludwig that he was going to talk to Ivan instead, Alfred headed towards downtown again, where Ivan’s bar was. Ivan never gave him alcoholic drinks, only letting him have pop or stuff of the sorts. He really didn’t want Ivan to get in trouble anyways, so he was cool about it.

Considering the time of day and it being a Sunday, Alfred was the only one who came in up until that point. Ivan seemed really happy to see him though.

“Privyat, Alfred! I wasn’t expecting you here today!” Ivan smiled, leaning on the bar counter and gesturing for him to take a seat. He ended up sitting on the stool in front of Ivan.

“Ehh, yeah. Kiku’s busy today, so I thought I’d stop by.” Alfred replied, “You know, with you being a bartender, I love hearing about the drunks you kick out.”

“What? You want to hear about the drunks again?” It was always weird for Ivan to talk about it, but Alfred always enjoyed it, “Well.. Nobody really stood out.. Expect for.. well, this one.”

“Hmm? Go on.”

“It’s really strange actually, but there’s this young British man who comes to the bar every Tuesday.”

The one day Alfred has never came to the bar is when the British guy stops by?

“Anyways..” Ivan continued, “It’s really annoying, how he comes here and gets wasted every night. At least he pays or else we’d be having some problems, da? But, he goes on and on about his lost son or something, it makes me feel bad, but I assume his son is gone. His French boyfriend always comes to pick him up and apologizes, but I’m just really curious about this guys son.”

“It sounds interesting, dude.” Alfred said, “He comes every Tuesday, right?”

“Da, that’s right.”

“Well, can I stop by Tuesday? I want to see this guy. He must be a hilarious drunk.”

“I’m not so sure..” The Russian man frowned, but sighed a few seconds later and smiled a little, “But, my doors are always open. If you want to come see him, I’d prefer that you’d arrive before the crowd rush. He comes in later in the night.”

“Heh, isn’t that the best time to drink?” He smiled back, “Alright, I’ll stop by after dinner on Tuesday to see this guy. If it wastes my time, I’ll slap ‘em.”

“Always the violent one, typical American.”

The rest of their conversation was pretty boring, mostly about how school was going for Alfred or how Ivan’s sisters were doing. After people started pouring in, he bid Ivan farewell and hurried home, deciding to abandon the ideas of staying over Kiku’s that night. He’d just go home for the first night in weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyy filler chapter! I promise it ties into the story, but the next chapter will be about school for Alfred on Monday and I may touch up on life in Kiku's house, but I want at least two chapters before Alfred goes to the bar.


	5. Chapter 4

Alfred was out the door the moment that Ludwig got up. It was nice to have time to himself, even if it was only walking to school. Many times before Ludwig had offered a ride to school, but he was sure that would include having a meaningful conversation with Ludwig, which wasn’t going to happen. So without saying a goodbye or even giving a glance, he was out.

Unlike most other guys in his class, Alfred wasn’t as athletic or played sports. Even if he had the grade average to play, he’d rather watch sports than play them. School meant nothing to him, since everything he learnt didn’t help him in his life. If he went to get a job, they wouldn’t ask him what the answer to some long ass equation was. Getting up at ungodly hours of the day to come here wasn’t great either. Sleeping in sounded better to him.

Over the weekend, Alfred’s Science teacher had assigned some homework, but he hadn’t done it, as expected. Instead of trying to finish it before class, he spent his time looking around for Kiku. He wasn’t really worried, because Kiku not picking up on a Sunday wasn’t unusual, but he still wanted to see him at least before the first bell. Just in case something did happen, Alfred wasn’t that big of a jerk.

Uncharacteristically of Kiku, he was nowhere to be found. Not in the library, first period, by his locker, or the cafeteria. Just to be safe, Alfred had checked the bathrooms and office as well, but he hadn’t shown up there either.

_Is he sick?_

He hadn’t looked sickly when Alfred saw him Saturday night. Then again, he hadn’t looked at his friend for more than ten minutes. Plus anything could happen in two days time. If Kiku wasn’t seen by lunch, Alfred would assume he’s sick and head over to check on him.

First period for Alfred was Math, the worst subject at the worst time. Math was useless to him, it wore out his brain from having to memorize an equation for a test weeks from now. His brain always felt like it was literally rotting in his head after the first few classes because of how much he’d done to hurt it. Sometimes he’d turn to sleeping during lunch just to try and not snap at a teacher before the day was over, kicking a teacher wouldn’t look so great on a detention form.

Second was Spanish, which Alfred did enjoy to some extent. His teacher, Antonio Carriedo, was an immigrant from Spain, so he had a funny accent when he spoke, and was a pretty cheerful person. It was the kind of cheerful that was nice and welcoming, not too overly energetic, but enough to make the class bearable. Spanish didn’t stick well with Alfred though. No matter how patient Mr. Carriedo was, that didn’t help when it came to testing. Alfred couldn’t get the accent for the words right, if he remembered the words at all. German was easier for him, since Ludwig spoke that language a lot on the phone or to the dogs. He caught on quick, but Spanish wasn’t as forgiving to his mentality.

Right before English, Alfred had seen Kiku. He wasn’t sick after all! Kiku looked anxious, but not sick. That meant he was just late, nothing for him to worry about. There was ten minutes between classes because of how big the school was, so he figured he had time to say hello.

“Kiku! My main man!” Alfred’s voice was clear among the sea of other teenage voices, “I didn’t see you this morning, how are you?”

“A-alfred-?” Kiku jumped a little and turned around, easing a bit when he saw it was really Alfred, “Ahh.. It’s good that I saw you. I’m sorry about this morning, I had to discuss some things with Yao. But, I needed to talk to you about something, if that’s alright.”

Scratch that, there was something wrong. Yao was obsessed with Kiku doing well in school. He wouldn’t let Kiku show up late because of him if it was just anything. It was something important enough for Yao to let Kiku be late to school. This was no discussion.

“Sure, if you don’t mind being late to class. I’d rather talk about it now.” Alfred replied, easily convincing the nervous one into skipping class. Kiku rarely let Alfred talk him into such things. The best place to hide was the bathrooms, in the handicapped stall. It was big enough to fit both of them with no problem until the bell rang and the halls were empty again, “So, what’s going on?”

“Huh..? Oh, right. Alfred-san, Yao and I were talking about you actually.”

There it is.

“Really? How come?”

“Well, it’s a long story, but Yao encouraged me to try and tell you.” Kiku said, waiting for Alfred’s nod of approval, “It’s actually crazy, since Yao doesn’t like you, I thought he wouldn’t understand at all, but he did. It had been bugging me for a while though-”

_If you’ve got something to say, just say it Kiku._

“-and, well, it’s weird I guess, but-”

 

_Kiku, I’m losing interest just say it._

“B-but, ahh.. Alfred-san?”

****_Kiku. I’ll leave you in this stall._   
****

“-loved you for a long time, since a few months ago. .”

. . Oh.

****_Oh._   
****

Alfred just stared, simply stared down a Kiku, expression unreadable. Anything else Kiku said was lost in his ears. He wasn’t even lost in thought, just, there. Kiku loved him? Since when? Well, he had said a few months ago, but why? Why Kiku? He never loved anyone, why would someone as perfect as Kiku love him? What was he supposed to say back? He didn’t know how to feel.

“Alfred, please say something! Anything!”

Oh, Kiku was talking again. Say something? What should he say?

“I. . Kiku, you. .”

Nothing came out, just mumbled sounds supposed to be words. A pitiful expression on his face. There was no way for Alfred to respond to this.  
 ****

_Just lie. You’ve lied to girls to get into their pants before, tell him something. Anything, don’t make him cry over spilt milk._

Kiku’s never cried in front of him, why would he now?

Sometimes, someone can know when they’ve made a bad decision. Alfred always acted on impulse, so most of his choices were really bad. Especially when he did do something. He hadn’t remembered shoving Kiku out of his way, or Kiku’s startled scream, or when he had ended up back outside by his house, but in an act of impulse, that all had happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill, chapter sucks, updated late, yada yada.  
> Either way, please let me know what you thought and any suggestions for future chapters!  
> Also, if you're ever confused on wording, see a mistake, or want an explanation, let me know!


	6. Chapter 5

Alfred wasn't very athletic, but he could run for a long time without coughing up a lung. With his adrenalin on overdrive, he was able to run out of the building and down five blocks without stopping and blindly darting into his house. He needed out; He needed to think. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? He barely understood what Kiku said. He turned his head to look behind him, half expecting Kiku to have followed him. There was nobody there.

"Of course, why would he. .?"

 

 

Running away wasn’t going to be easy, but he knew that for the first few days nobody would suspect anything. The longest he’d ever gone without any communication to anyone was a week before they were worried that he was dead, so he had a few days to just plan out where to go. He always acted out on impulse anyways, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Any sane person would of seen what Kiku had done as a love confession and no valid reason to run away from home, but this was Alfred. The same Alfred who didn’t feel real affection towards people. The same Alfred who drank underaged and failed his classes. Alfred Jones didn’t simply get love confessions from his best friend, it had to of been a mistake.

With Ludwig not home, Alfred didn’t have to sneak around the house to get his things. He didn’t need much, his gaming console, phone, charger, headset, and money. That was it. That’s all he needed. He'll catch the next bus and find anywhere to clear his head for awhile. It had been awhile since he'd had a drink, that should help.

      He took long steps down the all too familiar alleyway. It was famous as the police have never raided it when a drug exchange took place. Unlike most trades, you paid the dealer at a party and stopped by to find out hidden behind the dumpster later that night. As long as you were quick it was fine.

Alfred took a quick duck to look under the dumpster, and he saw a Brown paper bag waiting. He was supposed to get it after the party Saturday, but he knew it would still be there. It always was. Anything that involved needles to have were rare and only done in groups, so he just stuck with booze most of the time. Mixing it into his own drinks was easy.

    'There isn't anytime to drink it now.'

   Alfred shoved it into his bag and left the alleyway. If he hurried he could catch the bus.

"The only bus ticket I can offer you is a one-way ticket to the next city over, is that alright sir?" The lady behind the counter hadn't suspected a thing.

    "Yeah, that's fine." He replied.

    "It'll be $13.50, sir."

     "Got it."

     Alfred was one of the first on the bus, so he could've say anywhere. He opted for the seat most far back next to a window. His bag occupied the seat next to him. As more people got on, it grew to be louder. It ranged from a fragile old lady to a high spirited young boy playing with an action figure. Nobody even glanced his way. Perfect.  

    He continued to stare out the window, dull music emitting from the buses speakers as it began to move. Scenery soon began to fade and all he could see was an open highway.

Every time his phone rang, Alfred ignored it. He'd look at them once he found somewhere to stay. They could wait. There would always be time.

"Excuse me?"

    Alfred internally groaned, feeling to urge to punch whoever had put his bag on his lap and sit beside him. The bus had been moving for an hour! Why not stay where you were?

   "What-?" He replied, turning his head over lazily. His heart nearly stopped  
  
  


Messy blonde hair gently fell over emerald green eyes, but thick eyebrows were still visible and almost looked drawn on. He sat formally and started down at Alfred with some sort of hope in his eyes.

    "I apologize, but. . Do I know you?" His voice was the same British one as.. him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not too proud of this one, I rewrote it three times and changed the plot twice. I decided Alfred isn't going to meet Arthur at the bar, so the entire plot is changing from what I originally thought it would be. Anyways! I was really inspired to write this after hearing the song I used in this chapter, it's called Not an Addict by K's Choice. I've said before that I can relate to this AU Alfred in a lot of ways, and I related to this song more than I should, so I decided to use it. As always, hope you enjoy!


	7. Chapter 6

_“What’s going on over there, Papa?” A small voice had asked, assumingly from behind him, but Alfred couldn’t turn around to look. His sight was only focused on a lady dressed in a red dress, sitting in a car near the park they were at. He never remembered even arriving at the park and everything seemed bigger than it really was._

_“Oh, she’s from out of town, Mattie. Quiet the religious lady, I don’t know her name though.” This time it was a man’s voice, a French accent making his words difficult to understand._

_“You mean that twat-?” There was the British voice, always the same three voices haunting his memory, “I won’t even call her a lady! She almost rammed into my car, the git! And it’s not like when those Italian ‘twins’ do it, she was actually trying to hit me, she’s crazy!”_

_“You’d best calm down, Arthur, she can probably hear you.”_

_“To hell with that! I hope she hears me!"_

The only thing Alfred thought of to do in this situation was to stare back in awe at the man, who seemed to grow uncomfortable in Alfred’s silence. It was a silent game, both seeing who would talk first. Alfred’s mind was preoccupied with hundreds of questions and thoughts, all about the man in front of him. That was him. Ever since he first began having those realistic dreams, there were three people always there. His brother, a sweet, shy Canadian boy. A French man that he remembers making great food and smelling ‘like Paris’ as a woman in a dream once said. The last one was right in front of him. A stern, but warmhearted British man with crazy eyebrows who swore a lot.

“I. . Sorry, lad. I thought you were somebody else. My mistake.” He spoke up, breaking Alfred’s thoughts.

“. .”

“I’ll move back to my seat, sorry again.”

_Say something! Anything, something stupid. Don’t let him leave!_

It was a child-like thing to do, but Alfred found himself reaching out and grabbing onto the man’s sleeve.

“Huh?”

“. .” Alfred looked up carefully and slowly, “. . Arthur.?”

“How-” Arthur stopped himself, “. . do you know me?”

“N-no, you look like someone from my dreams.” He replied.

“From your dreams?” Arthur inquired, pressing him to go on.

“I, uh, have dreams sometimes, and you look like one of the guys in them.”

“Oh, that’s funny actually. .” Arthur smiled warmly at him, “A long time ago, my fiancee and I adopted two brothers from an orphanage, at separate times. It was a coincidence that they were related.”

“Did I remind you of one of them?” Alfred asked.

“Well. . yes. One of the two, his name was Alfred-” A shudder ran down Alfred’s spine, going unnoticed by Arthur, “-went. . missing when he was about five or six. We looked for him, in fact I guess we still are looking for him in a way. We knew who had taken him, but by the time the police got off their arses and searched her place, he had been moved to an orphanage somewhere and adopted again.”

“That’s awful.” He mumbled, already putting things together. It was strange, how most people would be ecstatic after finding their son after being missing for so long, but Arthur seemed fairly calm. Not that Alfred was overly shocked either, but he had different reasons.

“Arthur?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s me, Alfred.” Alfred said, feeling dumb right afterwords.

But all Arthur did was smile again, patient and calm, and placed an arm around his shoulder. On any other occasion, Alfred would of punched whoever touched him, but this was different.

****“I missed you, Alfred. Welcome home.”** ** __**  
  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurray for filler chapters! Okay, so I want you guys to know that there is still a lot to happen in this story. We still need to develop Kiku and Alfred's relationship and introduce Francis, Matthew, Feliciano, Lovino, and a few others. The next one will probably be about Kiku and Yao, so let's see whenever that comes out!

**Author's Note:**

> More like 'I'm trying the get rid of my writer's block', so I apologize if the writing seemed poor. This story is in an AU I'm in love with where Alfred was kidnapped as a child and abused by a drug dealer until he was rescued, and this story is basically him trying to get everything together in his life while also trying to find his brother.  
> If you have any ideas or requests for plot lines in this story, or any questions, please just leave a comment!


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